INTRODUCTION

The Convention and the Court's jurisprudence have been considerably transformed in the last 50 years. In analysing factors of this transformation the focus has mainly been on the Court, member states and the political power relations between these two global players. There has been little research on other actors such as members of civil society. There has especially been a lack of research on the role of amicus curiae intervention in developing and transforming human rights protection. Despite the importance of amicus curiae for human rights litigants and despite its existence for more than 30 years, the practice of amicus curiae has never been systematically analysed. Most studies on amicus curiae can be divided into three categories: (1) studies addressing the role of NGOs before the Court; (2) those comparing amicus curiae from diff erent international institutions; and (3) those applying a descriptive approach to selected cases. In addition, there has been an empirical study by Van de Eynde which assessed 140 amicus curiae briefs submitted between 1986 and 2013 in order to map amicus curiae activities before the Court. However, the role of amicus curiae intervention has yet to be conceptualised.

Owing to the lack of a clear concept or theory, the role of amicus curiae interventions is also disputed. The case of Cestaro v Italy illustrates this well. The Italian government promoted the view that the role of amicus curiae intervention is to provide new or additional information or arguments pertinent for the decision of a case. In contrast, interventions that propose legal reforms or that denounce the lack of legislation in a certain area, as had been done by the three interveners in the case of Cestaro v Italy, are not compatible with the role of amicus curiae intervention before the Court. The Italian government hence asked the Court not to include the three interventions in the case file and to ignore them. The Court, in admitting and considering the interventions, disagreed with the Italian government and was obviously of the opinion that they were compatible with the role of amicus curiae.

This chapter thus comprehensively and empirically analyses the role of amicus curiae in shaping the Court and developing human rights protection in Europe.